China, at the time, highly segmented its labor in relation to gender. Education was primarily for men as the secured official jobs with the government. On the other hand, women remain at home, and their responsibility includes taking care of the household, children, and making sure that the children get food. A woman was supposed to prepare their daughters for marriage. Both the educated women and the farm-waivers women helped teach their children, especially the daughters, on how best to become a respectable woman. Li Xiuhua teaches her daughters, poetry with the hope that they find the best partner for marriage. She stays at home with her children and does not allow her daughters to be seen in public as there was a bad reputation for the family. “Li Xiuhua had educated them so that they could be effective mothers for literate and high-achieving sons” p 10. Another illustration of the educated woman teaching their children includes the following “. In addition, Li Xiuhua had instructed her daughters in the art of embroidery. For a woman of the educated class, embroidering clothing, accessories, shoes, and bedding for one’s dowry shows the world and her own family that she possessed the virtues of being a woman-patience, industrious and skills.”p 10
On the other hand, Huang’s wife is fundamentally active in teaching her daughters the way for womanhood. As for her, it is difficult for her daughters to remain indoors because of the nature of their economic livelihood. “As a mother taught her daughters to produce new clothes for the family, and for sale, she imparted to them as well the womanly virtue of patience, hard work, and thrift”15
Secondly, the writings of professor illustrated the concept that a woman, either educated or a farm-weaver, was essentially fundamental in providing financial support to the family. For the case of Li Xiuhua, her husband spent most of his time away from home, and she played an important role in making sure that the household got food, clothing, and education. “In many years when the land rent did not cover the expenses of her growing household, she paid her son’s teachers by selling the jewelry she had bought to her husband’s family as part of her dowry as well as pieces of her own embroidery” p 8
Huang’s wife lived with her husband and their children, and they had to help the husband on the farm sometimes. Additionally, Huang’s wife worked on her textile productions, which allowed her to earn a little amount to support the family. “It was profitable and utterly respectable, though it made for exhausting days of labor that could extend well into the night. Because the putting-out system and textile production were important features of the Jiangnan economy, the women in her village were all cotton weavers.” Pp15-16
In his arguments, Professor Hershatter’s “The Gendered labor of empire 1800 -1840” focuses on the life women encounter in the early nineteenth century. The writer uses important examples of composites to generate the difference in the experience women had with respect to their social backgrounds. Through the examples of the two women, Huang’s wife and Li Xiuhua, I have learned that economic factors that women played for decades finally were recognized through research by academic scholars who later influenced the way society viewed women.